Ushaw Moor Memories

Let me start with some details of a 1936 local derby. Ushaw Moor travelled the short journey to Esh Winning on 09/05/1936 to play the hosts. The scorecard for the game is as follows:

Esh Winning:
J Rowlands run out 5
T Kirk  run out 10
G Turnbull bowled C Sargeant  1
C Grey caught C Sargeant bowled J Sargeant  22
T Dove bowled R Wilson 31
S Willis bowled R Wilson 0
F Hallam bowled R Wilson 1
S Crosby caught Hope bowled Spikings 2
H Grey caught Gibson bowled R Wilson 11
R Pinkney lbw bowled Spikings 4
T Rowan not out 0
Extras 10
Total 97
Ushaw Moor:
R Hope bowled C Grey 23
J Ross bowled Hallam 1
J Sargeant lbw bowled Hallam 11
J J Gibson caught H Grey bowled C Grey  21
J Rodgers caught Willis bowled Dove 6
C Sargeant caught Turnbull bowled C Grey 10
J F Spikings not out 5
W Seed not out 1
Extras 20
Total 98 for 6 wickets
Ushaw Moor won by four wickets

Batting can be dangerous and in about 1940, during a Friday night cup game against Annfield Plain, Harry Gillespie lost sight of a delivery in the sun and he was quite badly injured, or as Norman Hope reported some years later, ‘ Harry was very ill’.

Just a few notes about schooldays in 1959/60. Our two set books for an external exam in English literature were John Buchan’s The 39 Steps and J Meade Faulkner’s Moonfleet. I recall that had our class gone to grammar school we would have been obliged to read Shakespeare and that would have been a burden for me, as a fourteen year old coming on to fifteen. I have since begun to appreciate his exquisite language. Moonfleet was an exciting tale about smugglers and the Mohune family – floating coffins – Blackbeard etc. – readable by any one of twelve years and more! Our teacher was Mr Hewitson [I keep spelling his name that way but it might be Hewison]. I liked him even though at one point he compared me to Mrs Malaprop. He felt that I would do well in English because he considered that I had a fairly good vocabulary, even though, just occasionally, my choice of words was amusing and absolutely incorrect! So what has changed? Mr Barlow tried to get me a job with the Northern Echo but that did not materialize - so I went to study at Durham Technical College instead.

Robert Moore was in our class at Ushaw Moor and he later said that he received more education that year than ever before. He wasn’t a bad footballer; he was of a decent height but with a slightly built frame. I think Bob liked a cigarette and that might be the reason why he seemed to perform a little better in the first half of a game!